A male colleague of mine was christened with three fairly normal names. Unfortunately the initials spell out Mrs.
Chinese in Singapore often take an English name as well. Apart from your regular Johns and so on, some come up with names that to our ears are a little less suited for this purpose. like Cinderella, Nixon and Naive.
Nothing compared to Dr Richard Seed , a scottish fertility expert.
I grew up with an Alan Allen. The worst I’ve come accross was the guy over here who tried to name his kid “Akuma” (Japanese for devil). The local ward office refused, it went to court, and he lost.
I live in Germany - the land of rules and regulations. Here you can not just name your child whatever you like, there are rules you have to follow.
Your child needs to have 1 name that clearly identifies the gender. Which I think is kind of OK, since it forces parents who have had the great idea to call their child “Pumuckel” (popular childrens’ comic character, a gnome with red hair) or Chewbacca to give them a “normal” name as well - at least they will have a choice later.
Until a couple of years ago women here had to take their husband’s name when marrying (this has now been changed). I always found it disturbing when women of Spanish/Latino origin had to take a German last name and would be called “Maria Juana Dolores de la Rosa - Mueller”.
Best name I came across, working in a hotel reservation department and front desk: American guest named “Traci Prall” (Prall in German means “tightly squeezed, buxom”) We imagined her to be a porn star. There are several people in Germany called “Ficker” (->f***er).
You can change your last name in Germany if you have cause, but it is a lot of paperwork. I guess that is why I once checked in a hotel guest by the name of Adolf Hitler (I swear, I saw his Personalausweis, which is a German ID card everybody must have).
Esprix:
I also knew a Female (Fuh mah’ lee)
Also:
Harley Davidson (real name and he was a biker.)
Crystal Clearwater (which I think, is a wonderful name.)
Webster Webb (If your last name is Webb, it doesn’t matter what your first name is. Everyone calls you Spider)
Honey Boomer (I think she changed it to someting like Jennifer in her teens). Her mother’s name was Buddy.
Bunny Music Her mother and sister had unusual first names too, but I can’t remember what they are.
I’ve met a couple of Dikshits; I suspect it’s a common name in some parts of India.
I once met a South African whose first name was “Wonderboy”. A nice guy, but I had to ask him to repeat his name as I was sure I had misheard. I’ve also met a boy from Swaziland with a first name of “Doctor”.
My wife claims to have had a Southeast Asian TA in college named “Phuk No”.
A close friend was nearly named “Bunny”, but her parents decided to go with “Holly” instead. And she has the sort of last name that would make “Bunny” sound so much worse than it already is.
A friend claims to have overheard a woman in a supermarket calling her child “Spatula”, but I have my doubts as to the veracity of this one.
I went to school with Homer G. Homer III.
Can you imagine the pre-birth conversations between the parents?
“Gee, honey, I can’t think of one single name…”
We just had twins and gave them unusual names. We had heard the name Matisse being used for a girl a few years ago and always liked it, so we named our daughter Matisse. My wife is of Welsh heritage and wanted to reflect that in the names. They each have her surname as their middle name, Morgan. For our son, we considered Rhys (traditional Welsh spelling for Reese) but didn’t like the cutesy combination of Rhys and Matisse. After perusing some Welsh sites we decided to give our son the name Rhyd (Reed). It is not a Welsh name, but is a Welsh word and we like the sound of it.
FTR, my name was unusual as I was growing up and didn’t meet anyone with the same name until I was 15. It is now in the most popular names lists. I still turn around when I hear it in public, as I am not used to other people saying my name without talking to me.
There are identical twin boys that live near us that are named Marvin and Arvin :rolleyes: (hey, I can still roll my eyes at stuff I find silly!)
I worked with a Chinese woman who went by her English name only because she was embarassed by the sound of her Chinese name, Pei Yu.
on the various spellings of Alexsander…
what the difference between that and traditional names being revised to have an I at the end?
Tracy = Traci
Kelly = Kelli
etc.
IMHO, I despise that cutesy I ending.
but then again, maybe its because I’m a Wendy and not Wendi (shudders).
and please for GODS SAKES,
its WEHndy
NOT
WINDY.
there is no I anywhere in my name.
(sigh)
I have a distant relative called Dolly Snowball.
Examples of horrid names from the world of tsarina:
Two little boys in my elementary school were named Namron (his dad’s name spelled backwards) and Burr.
A girl I went to high school with named her son (born a year after she graduated) Blue Kevin. * Blue! *
A chemistry TA I had was named Fadi Asfour. Depending on our mood, my class either referred to him as “fatty acid” or “fat ass”.
A friend of my boyfriend’s (an Indian guy) is named Atit. It’s pronounced AH-teet, but… hee hee, “a tit”… 
My sister-in-law’s older sister is named Buffy. I think of a cocker spaniel every time I hear her name.
In my hometown there is a young boy with a name which is very appropriate lately:
Holden Flaig
<Extremely-esoteric-joke>
Sounds like a stirling idea!
</Extremely-esoteric-joke>
I went to junior high with a girl named Daisy White. I bet she got married at 18 just to be able to change it.
actually, there may be three. my sister had a Pajamas in her 1st grade class, in little rock arkansas. scary!! she also had a little boy in her class, last name King, first name Nosmo. Nosmo King. No Smoking. get it?
i’ve gotta agree with the wonky spellings thing. i work in a hospital, and i’m so sick of seeing the “how many ways can we spell Cheyenne” game. i have personally seen:
chianne
chyann
shyanne
shy ann
sheyanne
shiyann
guess what, folks, just because you’ve spelled it differently DOES NOT make it original! we actually had 3 little girls born on the same day, all with that name, all spelled differently.
Yeah, well, see, there never was an E on the end of my name. It is NOT a cutesy thing. My name is short for a long Italian name of bizarre spelling and uncertain pronunciation (at least for most English speakers) and when I Anglicized it, I saw no need to put an E there. So there.
Juli without an E
At least with “Juli”, people still know how it’s pronounced. I know someone who named her daughter “Julie” but spelled it “July.”
She gets very upset that everyone pronounces it like the month.
yeah, I knew it would offend some.
I personally don’t like it.
I mean, if you’re gonna Angelicize something, why not Angelicize it all the way?
and I simply don’t see the difference between that and:
Shiyanne
Chianne
Sheanne
and for the name blue:
I know two Blues. I think Its a jazzy name. I like colors for names, being an artist and all.
There was a girl in my school named Latrina. I swear.
A friend of my mom’s has a daughter named Amanda-Lynn (a mandolin).
My best friend’s name is Joe Budy.
Pronounced “yo booty.”